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Lot Essay
In Banksy’s Lost Children’s Sign from Glastonbury Festival (Sketch) (2005), a grinning policeman bends down to light up a spliff in the mouth of a young girl. Created as part of an intervention at the 2005 Glastonbury Festival—which also included a tent lifted into the sky by helium balloons—it is an instantly recognisable example of the artist’s anti-establishment wit. This would not be the last time Banksy made an appearance at Glastonbury: in 2019, he created the iconic Union Jack stab-proof vest worn by rapper Stormzy for his headline performance on the Pyramid Stage.
Banksy has depicted policemen in many of his best-known images, including Snorting Copper and Kissing Coppers, which first appeared on walls in London and Brighton in 2005. In counterpart to these subverted authority figures, perhaps his most famed stencil of all is Girl with Balloon (2002), which resonates with viewers worldwide as an emblem of hope and innocence. Lost Children’s Sign from Glastonbury Festival (Sketch) juxtaposes these two central Banksy characters to create a striking satirical vision, with the long arm of the law made gleefully demonic.
Banksy’s characteristic use of stencils, as seen in the present work, was first inspired by a run-in with the police at eighteen. Fleeing the Bristol constabulary one evening, he hid underneath a garbage truck where he studied the lettering on the side of the cabin door. Immersing himself in the thriving graffiti scene of his native city, he began to stencil on walls, trains and unlikely public spaces, working across the UK and the wider world as his ambition grew. His fascination with the motif of the police officer, in this regard, may be understood in relation to the apparent lawlessness of his own practice. Banksy himself preaches a utopian view of street art. ‘Imagine a city where graffiti wasn’t illegal,’ he has written, ‘a city where everybody could draw wherever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases. Where standing at a bus stop was never boring. A city that felt like a party where everyone was invited, not just the estate agents and barons of big business. Imagine a city like that and stop leaning against the wall—it’s wet’ (Banksy, Wall and Piece, London 2005, p. 97).
Banksy has depicted policemen in many of his best-known images, including Snorting Copper and Kissing Coppers, which first appeared on walls in London and Brighton in 2005. In counterpart to these subverted authority figures, perhaps his most famed stencil of all is Girl with Balloon (2002), which resonates with viewers worldwide as an emblem of hope and innocence. Lost Children’s Sign from Glastonbury Festival (Sketch) juxtaposes these two central Banksy characters to create a striking satirical vision, with the long arm of the law made gleefully demonic.
Banksy’s characteristic use of stencils, as seen in the present work, was first inspired by a run-in with the police at eighteen. Fleeing the Bristol constabulary one evening, he hid underneath a garbage truck where he studied the lettering on the side of the cabin door. Immersing himself in the thriving graffiti scene of his native city, he began to stencil on walls, trains and unlikely public spaces, working across the UK and the wider world as his ambition grew. His fascination with the motif of the police officer, in this regard, may be understood in relation to the apparent lawlessness of his own practice. Banksy himself preaches a utopian view of street art. ‘Imagine a city where graffiti wasn’t illegal,’ he has written, ‘a city where everybody could draw wherever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases. Where standing at a bus stop was never boring. A city that felt like a party where everyone was invited, not just the estate agents and barons of big business. Imagine a city like that and stop leaning against the wall—it’s wet’ (Banksy, Wall and Piece, London 2005, p. 97).